Man gets 40 years for killing estranged wife after beating down door of Arlington home with sledgehammer

A man who used a sledgehammer to knock down his estranged wife’s door and then shot and killed her in the back yard of her Arlington home pleaded guilty to murder charges Monday and will receive a 40-year prison sentence.

Patrick Edward Arnold, 69, was going through a “nasty” divorce from his wife, Linda Kay Arnold, when he showed up at her home on June 10, 2010, according to his attorney Terri Moore.

The music teacher in the Arlington school district was shot in front of her neighbor outside her home the 4100 block of Green Acres Circle.

A day before the shooting, Patrick Arnold was ordered to pay spousal support and his wife’s attorney’s fees, and faced jail time if he refused. He was also forbidden from calling, texting or getting within 200 feet of her home or the schools where she worked.

After shooting his wife to death, Arnold drove to the police station, confessed and showed police the location of the murder weapon, Moore said.

Moore said Arnold did not want a trial at first and asked prosecutors to seek the death penalty in his case.

“It was the talk of an extremely remorseful man,” Moore said. “He didn’t want to put the family members of his deceased wife through a trial and worry if he was going to be found guilty.”

The plea agreement was reached after officials spoke to Kay Arnold’s daughter.

Arnold previously received a 30-year prison sentence in 1982 after he was convicted in Dallas County of theft, burglary of a home, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and aggravated kidnapping with a deadly weapon.

He was released 10 years later in October 1992, but returned about a year later after a parole violation. He was released again in August 2000 with mandatory supervision, which would have ended in April 2013.

“The last time he was in prison, the warden was moved to a new prison and Patrick was one of the inmates he brought with him,” Moore said. “He’s fragile, but in the right circumstances, he does well.”

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